Ah the West Orange Trail a place full of rich history and often forgotten because time has changed what it once stood for. Like most railroads in Florida this grade was also converted into a bike trail. Most people would say hey Rick bicycle trails cannot be haunted or are not eerie. But in my opinion when you have a rail trail that goes through swamps, forest, dismal historical towns, and through one of the oldest citrus groves in the state...you get ghost...eeriness...history all bonded together as one.

The West Orange Trail runs for about 22 miles If my bike was not as beat up it would have been a wonderful ride rather then a walk. But perhaps that is why people do not recognize the trail for its paranormal because they do not stop to smell the flower therefore we hiked it for about a mile to see what kind of discoveries we could make about it.  The trail stars in a small town named Oakland and borders the Lake County line...following Lake Apopka to the North East. Along the way two highlights are the restored railroad bridge that goes over the highway and an old wood bridge about 20 miles further down the trail.  There are also railroad depots through the various towns it passes by some are torn down others are restored and used as museums.

Also along the way is a granite marker which commemorates the family of S.B. Hull who arrived in the area in 1905. Where the monument is near is supposedly one of the oldest orange groves in the state called Burdette Island Grove before the family purchased it in 1912. Simeon Benjamin Hull served as a trustee of the Oakland-Winter Grand School District, second vice president of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and was even appointed by the Orange County Board of Commissioners to make the 1927 Agricultural and Industrial Survey for the State Department of Agriculture. I did not find this monument rumor has it that its near the beginning of the trail. I did seen the massive grove however along our journey.

As far as the Orange Belt Railroad Tracks go a man by the name of Peter Demens from St. Petersburg, Russia had purchased the railroad franchise originally issued to Arnold Miller & Hall to construct a railroad line from Lake Monroe to Lake Apopka. He also had purchased another line to continue it to Tampa Bay. His original design was planned to pass two miles south of Oakland but the Judge named Speer convinced Demens to reroute the railroad through the town.

In exchange for this Judge Speer gave Demens company half interest in 180 acres for a townsite, 15 acres for a depot and railroad shops which would be moved from Longwood and 5 acres for a public park. The park I believe today is Speer Park which has enormous trees and is surrounded by the historical homes of Oakland which probably stood a century ago so not much has changed.

Then in 1886 a man by the name of Disston met with Demens offering him and the railroad one fourth of all his land if they could build the railroad within 6 miles of Pinellas Point. Demens was giving about 60,000 acres of land. Unlike Flagler...Demens was in debt because of a large portion of his funds went towards steel rails which were bought on credit from the George W. Stetson Company. The railroad was saved from a loan from the famous NY meat business called H.O. Armour & Company....I am assuming the same one I buy my turkeys and hotdogs from today. In 1887 the railroad continued to push on towards the southwest but was halted when the money ran out. The engines then were tied down to the tracks.

A loan was giving of $10,000 to remove the engine chains but in 1887 an angry mob of 100 men in Oakland demanded their wages or they were going to lynch Demens. That is when friends of Demens in Oakland managed to raise enough money to meet the payroll.  In 1888 finally Demens reached his goal and the last section of railroading bed was graded into Pinellas Point. Demens convinced the locals to change the name of the community thus St. Petersburg was born.

One of the most interesting historical sites along these tracks was the Orange Belt Railroad Depot which was built with a Russian Architectural style which still stands today. When this depot was built a boom within Oakland began as hotels, an opera house, stores, hospital, a telegraph office, newspaper, workmen's homes, and housing for company officials were all born.

In 1889 Oakland was the main junction for the Orange Belt and Florida Midland Railroads. Demens eventually moved to NC and then in 1892 to LA where he acquired a steam laundry. How does one go from railroading to laundry confuses me but this was a man that had completed his railroad dream.  Little does others know Demens also grew citrus...wrote for the Los Angeles Times...worked as an Associated Press Reporter and even took charge of the Russian government purchasing bureau into it was overthrown by the Bolshevists. Demens lived a long life dying in 1919!

Besides the West Orange Belt line going through downtown Oakland another line in 1890 was being built a couple miles east missing Oakland. The Orange Belt Railroad threatened to obtain and injunction preventing the T&G railroad from putting any railroad grades through Oakland. T&G stood for Tavares...Apopka and Gulf Railroad. Well when the holidays had hit the courthouse was closed...and T&G ended up switching the tracks south which reached Oakland. Unfortunately the Orange Belt Line could not get the injunction in time and a T&G depot was built. That line was taken over by the Seaboard and eventually the tracks were removed...but the depot still remains today.

The 1890s were a harsh time however for the Railroad since in 1894 and 1895 those were the year of the great freezes which eliminated freight traffic. That same year many towns become disserted becoming ghost towns some of which our team visited previously throughout Florida.  In 1895 Henry Plant leased and operated the line as part of the Plant System. In 1902 the Plant System was merged into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company which merged with the Seaboard Air Line in 1967 to become the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company.  Eventually the Orange Belt Line would serve of no use and was turned into a rails to trails.

I never really had the chance to tell you another key interest about where the West Orange Trail begins. It is actually on the south shore of Lake Apopka...and that town was named Oakland which was full of wealthy settlers from SC who established it in 1844. They called it Oakland Park actually and had about 100 slaves and cleared land for cotton, corn, and sugar cane. In 1860 the town become an industrial center for a grist mill, sugar mills, cotton gins and saw mills. The mucklands made for good farm.

After the Civil War the town had many prominent residents such as the Speers, Sadlers, Tildens, Wises, Willises, Hulls and Pretrises families.  Hence our next visit which would be the cemetery where all of these families are buried at some of which I took photos of there graves you'll see.

In 1877 Judge Speer living near the lake started an internal improvement Fund for ownership of the swamps and overflowed lands north of the lake. In 1879 the request was granted and the lakes draining beginning with the digging of a canal which would connect to Lake Dora. If you recall we visited Lake Dora and did an investigation of it back in 2005 I believe.  The canal was completed in 1887 about 8 years later built by the Apopka Canal Company. That project would allow Oranges to be loaded by boat at the Oakland Dock and shipped by water through the various lakes...to the St. Johns River...reaching Jacksonville and Savannah. This occurred before Demens Railroad keep this in mind once the railroad was put in boats had little use...then came tractor trailers eliminating the railroad.

So basically this is the entire history of the Orange Belt Line now converted to a trail today. Is it haunted? Well in my opinion I think that aside from its dismal feeling that resides along the trail that it also has what I would call a haunting feeling. I think along the trail being that it went along the site of a plantation, runs through historical towns,  industrial areas, and haunting groves.

There is alot of history to the area I think that the places you do not expect to be haunted or paranormal activity turn out to be the strangest.

© By

Lord Rick-AngelOfThyNight